Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.76.6~24 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | October 30, 2025 |
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevaya
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 76 Verse 6.
ŚB 10.76.6
devāsura-manuṣyāṇāṁ
gandharvoraga-rakṣasām
abhedyaṁ kāma-gaṁ vavre
sa yānaṁ vṛṣṇi-bhīṣaṇam
Synonyms
deva — by demigods; asura — demons; manuṣyāṇām — and humans; gandharva — by Gandharvas; uraga — serpents; rakṣasām — Rākṣasas; abhedyam — destruction, indestructible; kāma — at will; gam — traveling; vavre — chose; saḥ — he; yānam — a vehicle; vṛṣṇi — for the Vṛṣṇis; bhīṣaṇam — terrifying.
Translation
Śālva chose a vehicle that could be destroyed by neither demigods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, Uragas nor Rākṣasas, that could travel anywhere he wished to go, and that would terrify the Vṛṣṇis.
Text 7
Lord Śiva said, “So be it.” On his order, Maya Dānava, who conquers his enemies’ cities, constructed a flying iron city named Saubha and presented it to Śālva.
Text 8
This unassailable vehicle was filled with darkness and could go anywhere. Upon obtaining it, Śālva went to Dvārakā, remembering the Vṛṣṇis’ enmity toward him.
Text 9-11
Śālva besieged the city with a large army, O best of the Bharatas, decimating the outlying parks and gardens, the mansions along with their observatories, towering gateways and surrounding walls, and also the public recreational areas. From his excellent airship he threw down a torrent of weapons, including stones, tree trunks, thunderbolts, snakes and hailstones. A fierce whirlwind arose and blanketed all directions with dust.
Text 12
Thus terribly tormented by the airship Saubha, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s city had no peace, O King, just like the earth when it was attacked by the three aerial cities of the demons.
Text 13
Seeing His subjects so harassed, the glorious and heroic Lord Pradyumna told them, “Do not fear,” and mounted His chariot.
Text 14-15
The chief commanders of the chariot warriors — Sātyaki, Cārudeṣṇa, Sāmba, Akrūra and his younger brothers, along with Hārdikya, Bhānuvinda, Gada, Śuka and Sāraṇa — went out of the city with many eminent bowmen, all girded in armor and protected by contingents of soldiers riding on chariots, elephants and horses, and also by companies of infantry.
Text 16
A tumultuous, hair-raising battle then commenced between Śālva’s forces and the Yadus. It equaled the great battles between the demons and demigods.
Text 17
With His divine weapons Pradyumna instantly destroyed all of Śālva’s magic illusions, in the same way that the warm rays of the sun dissipate the darkness of night.
Text 18-19
Lord Pradyumna’s arrows all had gold shafts, iron heads and perfectly smooth joints. With twenty-five of them He struck down Śālva’s commander-in-chief [Dyumān], and with one hundred He struck Śālva himself. Then He pierced Śālva’s officers with one arrow each, his chariot drivers with ten arrows each, and his horses and other carriers with three arrows each.
Text 20
When they saw the glorious Pradyumna perform that amazing and mighty feat, all the soldiers on both sides praised Him.
Text 21
At one moment the magic airship built by Maya Dānava appeared in many identical forms, and the next moment it was again only one. Sometimes it was visible, and sometimes not. Thus Śālva’s opponents could never be sure where it was.
Text 22
From one moment to the next the Saubha airship appeared on the earth, in the sky, on a mountain peak or in the water. Like a whirling, flaming baton, it never remained in any one place.
Text 23
Wherever Śālva would appear with his Saubha ship and his army, there the Yadu commanders would shoot their arrows.
Text 24
Śālva became bewildered upon seeing his army and aerial city thus harassed by his enemy’s arrows, which struck like fire and the sun and were as intolerable as snake venom.
Purport
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that the arrows of the Yadu commanders burned like fire, struck simultaneously from all sides like the sun’s rays, and, like snake venom, were lethal by a single touch.
Because the heroes of the Vṛṣṇi clan were eager for victory in this world and the next, they did not abandon their assigned posts on the battlefield, even though the downpour of weapons hurled by Śālva’s commanders tormented them.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, all of these verses are describing this battle. And you will see not only here, but in many places in Bhagavatam, there’s battles between the devas and the demons, etc. and there’s very prolonged descriptions of how they’re fighting. If you look in Mahabharata or in Ramayana, you’ll see there’s many chapters devoted to fighting [Laughs]. So, one reason for this, of course is, this is an expression of virya-rasa. And, of course, the original rasa comes from the spiritual world. So, this is a spirit of fighting. In the spiritual world, this is a secondary rasa. Primary rasas are rasas of love. And the secondary rasas, like fighting, etc., are temporary phenomena that give a little taste to the rasas of love.
In the material world, we also have rasas. But often, these secondary rasas become primary rasas [Laughs], and the primary rasas become secondary. So, fighting becomes prominent. We see the whole battle of Kurukshetra was there, very prominent battle in Mahabharata. We see that there’s always wars taking place in this world. And even in entertainment, many of the movies are war movies. So, this virya-rasa becomes very, very prominent in the material world. And it also is reflected in sports. So, therefore, they have wrestling matches and football matches and whatever, which is all virya-rasa as well [Laughs].
So, of course, usually we think of war as not pleasant at all. Yeah, but rasa itself means pleasurable [Laughs]. So, Kshatriyas take great pleasure in fighting. So, the Vrishnis or the Yadus, they take great pleasure in fighting. And demons like Salva, Hiranyakasipu, also take great pleasure in fighting [Laughs]. Other people are not so skillful at fighting, but they take pleasure in hearing about these things or seeing these things [Laughs]. So, for these reasons, we see these battles portrayed in these, in the Puranas and Mahabharata and Bhagavatam. But, of course, in the material world, the rasas are all useless. The affectionate rasas are all temporary and full of misery. And the secondary rasas ultimately are full of misery as well. So, this, of course, is the opposite of rasa in the spiritual world. So, the primary rasas are the loving relationships. And the relationships are eternal. And the secondary rasas, like this virya rasa or whatever, they all depend upon the primary rasas of affection. So, the secondary rasas support and increase the primary rasas. In the material world, this is not so, these rasas like virya and anger, etc., operate separately.
So, in the case where we have the Lord and his devotees fighting with demons, we got two different rasas operating, we have the spiritual rasa and we have the material rasa. When the Lord comes to the material world with his devotees and they have to fight, we’ve got the spiritual rasa for the Lord and his devotees, but we’ve got the material rasa for the demons [Laughs]. So, Salva has a sense of virya in this fighting, but it’s material. It’s related to his pride and his ignorance. When Krishna and the Yadus are fighting on the other hand, this is not material at all. It’s not due to pride and ignorance that they are fighting. So, this is not pure spiritual rasa, because it’s Krishna and the Yadus fighting with demons in the material world [Laughs].
Yeah, so, in the spiritual world, there are no demons, so you can’t have that type of rasa, fighting demons in the spiritual world. Yeah, so, thus, in the spiritual world, that virya rasa will be much limited. And then the only way it’s expressed is with devotees. So, in Vrindavana, there is virya rasa when Krishna and the cowherd boys wrestle and fight [Laughs]. Or in Dvaraka, they may have fighting contests. So, in these cases, then there are no demons involved at all. So, this is pure spiritual rasa. And it’s only purpose is to give variety to the positive rasas like Sakhya or Dasya or whatever [Laughs].
And sometimes, then, the Lord wants a more intense virya rasa, so he comes to the material world and He fights with demons [Laughs]. So, Krishna gets plenty of opportunity, He kills demons in Vrindavana, He kills Kamsa and He kills other demons, including Salva [Laughs]. So, in this way, in the Bhagavatam, particularly in the Dvaraka pastimes, we’ll see many battles like this taking place. And we see in these particular verses how Pradyumna is showing his skill in shooting arrows. He was so skillful that even the enemies were praising him [Laughs]. Now, the nature of this Salva, of course is that, he got this special vehicle. And by the blessings of Shiva, this vehicle was huge and it could not be penetrated by any weapon. It could appear and disappear at will. So, it’s very difficult to attack this vehicle. So, this was the special blessing he got from Shiva. But it’s a material vehicle. And Krishna is completely non-material. And Krishna is the controller of the material energy. Therefore, the vehicle actually can do nothing to Krishna. Krishna controls all the shaktis which are producing this vehicle[Laughs].
So, demons like Salva, being foolish, they think that they can conquer Krishna. So, they don’t believe that Krishna has got all powers, including the power over material energy [Laughs]. And thus, they, the demons foolishly attack Krishna, thinking they can defeat Him [Laughs]. However, Krishna also plays with them, so that they think they’re winning in some cases [Laughs], ultimately He easily defeats them. And this becomes pleasing to the devotees. So, therefore, through these battles, the Lord displays his great powers. He defeats the demons, and he gives pleasure to the devotees.
Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1) Maharaj, fighting is like this fighting or you said, in material world fighting is there, so between humans also fighting is there. Not exactly wrestling, but normal people and sometimes there is no talk between the humans, if some misunderstanding or something. They don’t talk with each other for life. So, is that some Rasa? What is that Rasa?
[Laughs] In many cases, if they’re not Kshatriyas, it won’t be Virya Rasa. It may just be a show of anger and hatred [Laughs]. Of course, anger is also a spiritual Rasa [Laughs].
Devotee: Is anger also a spiritual Rasa?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, it’s Krodha Rasa [Laughs]. And in the spiritual world, Krishna may become angry with the gopis. The gopis become angry with Krishna [Laughs]. So, it’s expressed like that in the spiritual world.
But in the material world, the anger is based upon karma, a desire for enjoyment. And of course, Krishna says, it’s very difficult to control this anger. And due to this, we lose intelligence. We lose memory. And we can indulge in all sorts of sinful activities, and ultimately go to hell.
So, not talking is what? Not talking with each other is what Rasa?
Devotee: Not talking [Laughs].
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, it’s just a reflection of their anger or whatever. So, ignoring this and not talking to each other, what kind of Rasa is that? Well, it’s a distorted form of anger. In the spiritual world, Radha sometimes refuses to talk to Krishna.Sometimes she refuses to talk to Krishna.
2) I have one question. Maharaj, here we see that Shiva, he always does some activities that is seemingly against Lord Krishna. And also in Srimad Bhagavatam, we see when Shiva, he was running after Mohini Murthy. And he had some seminal discharge, like a normal human being. But again, we recognize Shiva as the pure devotee of God. And also, we say that, we know that he is in charge of the mode of ignorance. So, how to understand these things? Because, if we see Krishna, there are many expansions like Krishna, then Balaram, then Chaturvyuha, and then again Narayan, then again Chaturvyuha, and then Mahavishnu, Kshirodhakashai Vishnu, and then like that. So, Shiva also has like this kind of, in Shiva Tattva, there is some expansion? Who does these things actually? Because, normally in Gaudiya Madhav Vaishnava Sampradaya, the devotees, they are very humble. They are always Krishna conscious. They always chant Krishna’s name. But, we consider Shiva as a pure devotee, but his activities are always questionable. So, how to understand this thing?
So, Shiva, of course, is not a Jiva. He has a special category. He is like Vishnu. He has a spiritual body, never affected by ignorance. So, definitely, he is not under the influence of Ahankara and ignorance.
Then, why does he do such activities? So, this is different from the maya that affects Jivas. So, this is different from the maya that affects Jivas. Shiva, Vishnu, and even Balarama can be affected by Krishna’s maya. When Krishna wants something, they act as if they are being chased by ignorance. Why would he do that? Only because of pastimes.
So, to illustrate certain things, the Lord may cover them up temporarily. So, in the case of Shiva, some of these times are there to show that Shiva is subordinate to Vishnu and Krishna, and therefore Krishna can easily put them into some sort of maya. And, of course, by doing that, Krishna also illustrates the dangers of material maya for the regular Jivas.So, because Shiva is ultimately a form of the Supreme Lord, we can never criticize him. So, what may look like a fault actually is no fault at all.
Krishna even uses his yoga maya on himself. So, Krishna arranges for his disappearance in this world. He gets shot in the foot by a hunter and he dies [Laughs]. This is just an appearance, it’s not real. And he does that to fool materialistic people.
3) Thank you so much, Maharaj. So, Maharaj, in Shiva’s case, what is the difference between Sadashiva and then Shiva and Rudra? So, would you kindly explain on that also?
These terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Often in Bhagavatam it talks about Rudra. This means Shiva. Sometimes the word Sadashiva refers to Vishnu. Other times it simply means Shiva. So we have to see the context of the particular name.
4) Maharaj, today is Gopashtami, so can you please explain that? What is Gopashtami?
So, this apparently is the day when Krishna was given charge of the cows. He was allowed to herd the cows. When Krishna was younger, He was allowed to take care of the calves. But then when He got older, Nanda Maharaj allowed him to take care of the cows also. So, Krishna grew up and became an adult.
Devotee: Is there a particular celebration or particular puja they have in Gopashtami?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I think in the Hari Bhakti Vilasa it says you feed the cows, you decorate the cows, you tickle the cows [Laughs].
5) There is some relationship like the past time when Krishna went to meet Radharani, he went in the dress of Gopi. Radharani became Gopa to meet Krishna. That past time is there?
We have stories of how Krishna dresses up as a Gopi, like in Camatkara Chintamani and a few other works. I haven’t seen how Radha dresses up as a Gopa [Laughs].
Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!! HDG A.C Bhakti Vedanta Swami Prabhupada Ki Jai!!!